Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the financial impact of outsourcing within prisons.

In June 2019, the Ministry of Justice put in place the Prison Operator Services Framework to manage a pipeline of operator competitions for new build prisons, and existing private prisons as they expire. To date, nine operator competitions have been launched via the Framework, with seven contracts awarded. One further contract is due to be awarded in 2024 before the final contract is awarded in 2025.

The aim of all operator competitions is to secure an operator to provide high quality, sustainable, and value for money custodial and maintenance services that are safe, decent, secure, and rehabilitative.

In each competition, bidders are required to set out detailed, high quality, value for money prison specific proposals that must meet minimum quality and financial thresholds. Bids are evaluated against clearly defined quality and financial criteria and a public sector comparator.

All operator competitions to date have delivered savings and provided additional added value when compared against the public sector comparator.